Steel Garage Doors
Steel is the most popular material used for garage doors today because of its durability. Steel will look great forever and is virtually maintenance-free.

It also has the advantage of being the least expensive garage door you can buy. If you're looking to add even more curb appeal, a Steel Door in Carriage House Style like the one pictured, might be just what you're looking for...

Steel doors can be made to be very well insulated and minimize air infiltration which is really important if your garage is attached to your home.

Amarr® & General Doors® can make your home warmer.

Aluminum Garage Doors
Aluminum Garage doors are a good choice for the demanding buyer. They offer superior insulation, a wide range of colors, and are a good choice for people who live by the ocean or other corrosive environments.

Wood Carriage House Doors
Carriage house doors can radically beautify your home. Because so much of your home's facade may be the garage itself, new garage doors can dramatically enhance the style of your home. These doors increase the curb appeal of your home so much that real estate studies have shown they increase the value of your house. But that's not the real reason to have them... the real reason is just how much you'll love the way the exterior of your home looks... and if the neighbors are a little jealous, well, that just can't be helped.

Wood-Composite Garage Doors
are just above steel in terms of price. They come primed and ready to paint with a limited lifetime warranty. People buy wood-composite primarily for 3 reasons: because it needs to be painted it is easily customized to fit the home's color scheme. The second is that once it is painted it does not require the maintenance a wood door will. Nor will it crack, split, swell or warp like wood can. And lastly, this environmentally friendly door is made mostly from recycled material so it is the "greenest of garage doors."

I have an insulated steel door by Wayne Dalton and I have no complaints. I got rid of my old wood door (16' door) a few years back. I love that the Wayne Dalton door springs can be changed with hand tools and a drill, although in the past 8 years I haven't had to change a spring yet.

I got a thermostat that is set to 38* just in case. Never seen it drop that low just from a quick in and out, if it did kick on I'd have a on-delay relay wired in. Short cycling boilers get me angry, especially since it'd be pulling in 50* degree slab glycol. Mine is a 2 car door as well.

The new garage door I got is R18.4 which is great, but if the cold comes in all around it that is not so good! This may be a dumb question but how much of a gap between the door and the door frame should there be?

Yes there is a strip of insulation that stops the cold wind. I may be wrong but it just seems the original door was closer to the door frame. The new door certainly has an adjustment to make it closer but my door and another neighbor's door seemed to be put in the same way.

I am measuring a little less than 1/2" approx 6/16" or 7 /16" - Should it be adjusted less?
This may be a dumb question but how much of a gap between the door and the door frame should there be?

Is it me or are these new items not compatible or just too darn complicated?

The new Home Depot Clopay OverHead garage door is great but the double track system with the pulley mounted farther back and the big L bracket hanging over the track makes the mounting safety almost impossible!

The door will not close if the safety eye is not connected or even jumped out. Is there a way to jump it or not connect it? I could not see one?

I went back to 'Sears and got the special extension kit @#$@ ! ! !

The mounting options are
1. (Preferred) Clipped onto the left and right garage door tracks. -- Won't work because wire clip heats eye!
2. Fasten to Wall on each side of Garage Door (Wall board is not very strong!)
3. Fasten to floor - Concrete Anchors and Wood Blocks or extensions brackets will be needed.
I really do not like this option because with the extension brackets the max height off the floor is 7 inches. I want the eye to be 18 inches off the floor which is the standard height of car bumpers. This makes these devices a little more useful because the door will not close if the car is not all the way in!

Therefore option 2 is the only option for me. I pulled off the wallboard and found mold growing on the bottom inside. Prpbably from the water coming in from the old door! Then I found newspapers as the only insulation against the cinder block wall! So I pulled out the paper dated 1963 when the house was built! See pic and put in some nice Roxsul rock wool insulation.

Then I cut a piece of plywood which is strong enough to screw the darn eye into!

Is there any easier way? Now I have to put the transmitter in on the otherside!

I mounted mine about 2 ½ feet off the floor so that the car body will block the beam, just in case I don't pull in quite all the way. That might not be a good idea if you have small children or pets around.

I have seen the eyes mounted on a board a few inches apart, mounted on the ceiling. It works, but eliminates a good safety feature - I don't recommend it!

Looks like that Craftsman is a rebranded Chamberlain (like a lot of others I assume) based on those photoeye mounts. I installed two openers last year but was fortunate enough to be able to slide the clips over the tracks like you mentioned above.

Why can't you clip over the track? Can't you relocate the wire clip? This way of mounting is very easy.

The wiring can be a pain if it wasn't there to begin with. But you should only have to do it once, if that's an consolation.

Looks like that Craftsman is a rebranded Chamberlain (like a lot of others I assume) based on those photoeye mounts. I installed two openers last year but was fortunate enough to be able to slide the clips over the tracks like you mentioned above.

Why can't you clip over the track? Can't you relocate the wire clip? This way of mounting is very easy.

The wiring can be a pain if it wasn't there to begin with. But you should only have to do it once, if that's an consolation.

Click to expand...

As you can see from the pic, that stupid bracket that is riveted to the bottom door panel that the pully wire is connected to just barely clears the electric eye being minted on the wall. I tried it on the track and the bracket just hits it and pulls it up!

I put pressure treated 15/32" plywood on the wall and it comes in even with the wall board so when I paint it the same color it will blend in nice.

Well the other side mounting of the electric eye really went slow because I removed the wall board and saw all the mold on the back of the wallboard and termite damaged 2x4s ! ! !

I cut out the bad wood and removed the bad wallboard, then cleaned it up and put silicone in the crack in the corner and where the block wall meets the concrete floor!

So I went to home depot and got a 2x4x14 - $6.00 and a 4x8 sheet of 15/32" PT plywood for $30.00. The plywood thickness is the same as the sheet rock so it comes out event and when painted will blend it but be stronger and not mold or get termites in any paper backing.

The Roxsul rock wool insulation should be better than the 50 y/o newspapers!

It is now mounted and tested. The door still works and if I break the beam on the way down it stops!

I had to putty all the old holes from the old track and still have to run the wires!